Get going on Iraq, says Bush

George Bush has instructed the American administrator in Iraq to work out a new political framework for the country, as some top US commanders fear the insurgency there could be the counter-attack Saddam Hussein planned all along.

The new political proposals for Iraq were discussed in two days of crisis talks at the White House between the President's national security team and the head of the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, Paul Bremer.

The options reportedly include appointing a temporary Iraqi president and interim government that can take political control until a new constitution is written and elections are held.

The US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, said the crisis talks centred on finding a process "that will lead to a system and a means of returning sovereignty to the Iraqi people as soon as possible".

Mr Bremer said he presented options to Mr Bush on accelerating the transfer of power to Iraqis that had been drawn up by the Iraqi Governing Council, the interim body appointed by the US.

He rejected reports that the Administration saw the council as a failed body, saying "they face a very difficult situation".

Shortly before the talks, a top secret CIA report had warned that growing numbers of Iraqis believe the US-led coalition in Iraq can be defeated and are giving their support to the resistance.

Recent attacks on US and allied forces in Iraq appear to be so methodical and well crafted that some top US commanders fear this may be a war Saddam and his generals had planned.

Knowing they could not take on the US military with conventional forces, these officers believe, the Baathist government concealed weapons before the Americans invaded and planned to employ guerilla tactics.

"I believe Saddam Hussein always intended to fight an insurgency should Iraq fall," said Major-General Charles Swannack, who is responsible for combat operations in the lower "Sunni triangle", the most unstable part of Iraq.

"That's why you see so many of these arms caches out there in significant numbers all over the country. They were planning to go ahead and fight an insurgency should Iraq fall."

Not everyone in Iraq agrees with that theory. Some think that Saddam loyalists were in disarray after the war in March and took months to develop a response. In either case, the insurgents clearly gathered intelligence during that time on the vulnerabilities of the US occupation force.

General Swannack said there is no evidence that Saddam himself is orchestrating the attacks.

Lieutenant-Colonel Oscar Mirabile, a battalion commander running a security operation in the Sunni triangle town of Ramadi, agreed that the Baathist attacks were long planned.

"Saddam knew he couldn't win a war head-to-head against coalition forces. He was setting the stage for what you're looking at right now," he said.

On Wednesday, a tanker bombing of an Italian military base in the town of Nasiriyah killed at least 18 Italians and nine Iraqis, the largest casualties inflicted on Italy since World War II.

An American soldier was also killed on Wednesday in a roadside bomb attack, bringing to at least 156 the number of US soldiers killed in action since May 1.